Press Releases

4. June 2007

AAEON joins COM Express™ Plug-and-Play Initiative

The COM Express™ PnP initiative is pleased to welcome AAEON Technology Inc. as its latest member.

Taipei, Deggendorf, June 4th, 2007 – The COM Express™ PnP initiative is quickly gaining momentum as another key embedded computer vendor is added to its member list. The addition of AAEON Technology Inc. will help ensure that a common implementation strategy for COM Express™ modules and carriers boards is achieved as set forth by the COM Express™ PnP initiative. AAEON now joins other existing members who have already taken advantage of the availability of a free design guide that, when implemented, will enable an easy exchange of COM Express™ components by embedded system engineers to help avoid risks of vendor-related technical incompatibilities.

COM Express™ is a well-defined PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) standard for Computer-On-Modules (COM). It offers great flexibility for many embedded computing applications. The specification defines two module sizes and five different pinout types.The PICMG standard allows the implementation of COM Express™ solutions with certain freedom in power sequencing, I/O definition and other criteria. These choices are often a limitation when it comes to interchangeability between one vendor and another thereby leading to second source problems for customers. Without applying the PnP implementation guidelines some features simply may not work when using a third party COM or carrier board.The COM Express™ PnP implementation, initiated by congatec, is available as a design guide that fully details the circuitry needed by system OEMs to achieve module interchangeability. System companies need to create carrier boards that truly support multiple module vendors' products. The design guide includes the implementation of all available COM Express™ interfaces. All schematics for a full featured carrier board are additionally provided.The complete set of documentation is available immediately at no cost to all interested parties at www.comexpress-pnp.org

In future, the COM Express™ PnP initiative will introduce a COM Express Plugfest. Plugfest is an initiative for multiple vendors to test and demonstrate COM Express™ module interoperability of their products. Every member can test its products for compatibility based on a standardized test procedure. The Plugfest results for each manufacturer and product will be published on the web portal. The COM Express™ PnP will also publish integration recommendations for such things as software features, I/O controller support, LVDS panel support, and Embedded features. AAEON now joins the existing members in their endeavor to achieve these objectives.

As a supporting member, AAEON is entitled to a company listing on the COM Express website. This is a service offered to all COM Express™ suppliers, vendors and system integrators who commit to supporting the COM Express PnP implementation. Please send an e-mail request toinfonoSpam@comexpress-pnpnoSpam.org

PICMG is a consortium of over 450 companies who collaboratively develop open specifications for high performance telecommunications and industrial computing applications. The members of the consortium have a long history of developing leading edge products for these industries. Founded in 1994, PICMG's original mission was to extend the PCI standard, from the PCI Special Interest Group for use in non-traditional computer markets such as Industrial Automation, Medical, Military and Telecom. With the advent of fabric based transports PICMG specs have continued to evolve. This has resulted in a series of specifications that include CompactPCI®, AdvancedTCA®, AdvancedMC™, CompactPCI Express™, COM Express™ and SHB Express™. Each specification has a unique PICMG identifier. Details on each specification, including those under development can be found in our Specifications Directory. These specifications are represented by many leading edge products from PICMG member companies, details of which can be found in our Product Directory.

About COM Express™

COM Express™ modules are highly integrated off-the-shelf building blocks based on a PCI Express bus architecture that plugs into custom made, application-specific carrier boards. COM Express™ basic modules measure just 95 mm x 125 mm and include generic functions such as video, audio, Ethernet, storage interfaces and USB ports that are needed for most applications. A custom designed carrier board complements the COM Express™ core module with the additional functionality required for specific applications.COM Express™, a PICMG specification, is a result of the convergence of the latest technology standards based on serial differential signaling such as PCI Express, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, LVDS and Serial DVO implemented on an extremely compact Computer on Module. Moving from parallel buses such as PCI and IDE to serial buses such as PCI Express and SATA is a change on a scale of which has not been seen since PCI replaced ISA.